11/4/2009 3:36 pm
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In the community band/orchestra world, we're heavily into preparing for Holiday concerts. The conductors are realizing that there are only so many weeks to go until showtime and this pack of amateurs that they've agreed to lead are far from being up to the task. It's no longer a fun opportunity to work with the community. Suddenly their professional reputation is on the line and they become snappy and irritable and we start feeling like we're back in high school again being scolded for not practicing enough. Only then we didn't have full time jobs and kids to worry about. We are condemned to playing such holiday delights as "Sleigh Ride" , a piece most of us could play in our sleep and wish we could forget. For the French Horn players we are once again condemned to those infernal backbeats, oompah Hell.
And at home, I'm starting to wonder how I want to participate in the whole madness of the holidays. Do I really want to travel long distances to be with these people I call family? Do those kids who moved away from home really need to receive a gift? Will I drag myself out to the Christmas Eve service again for something I really don't believe in? And will I actually ever get that peaceful warm and fuzzy feeling this year that I think Christmas should be all about?
How about you?
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136 posts 11/10/2009 2:36 pm |
You right Senor Gatos. I'll come around eventually. I just wasn't ready for it yet in October.
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2874 posts 11/9/2009 3:16 pm |
I enjoy the sights and the sounds and carol to my heart's content. It's really Saturnalia, starting at Halloween lighting up to chase away the dark and culminating just after the solstice celebrating the return of the sun. We need it, and each other, to chase away the SADs.
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136 posts 11/7/2009 2:22 pm |
Thank you Kat, I try....
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13777 posts 11/7/2009 10:25 am |
If you have the talent and training on an orchestral instument, be up for the task, jblie. Give joy to ears and you shall recieve ten times over.
 , Kat.
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136 posts 11/5/2009 6:34 pm |
Oh Dae, how sweet! Enjoy!
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627 posts 11/5/2009 4:52 pm |
The peaceful warm fuzzy feeling I get from Christmas is from knowing that all the Chinese restaurants will be open.
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3380 posts 11/5/2009 4:35 pm |
My experiences with this holiday have been good, on the whole. My parents were never very materialistic and encouraged home made gifts, but even if bought, modeled creative and meaningful giving. Something that seems very rare.
I love Christmas music (granted, I am not a French Horn player) and my heart lights up as the lights on the houses flicker to life.
I know many are grumpy, but I'm not one of them and I seem to surround myself with others that are happy about the holiday...when I find myself in the company of someone that is not happy about the holidays for whatever reason I try to be respectful. I do see, and am bothered by the commercialism, the greed and the stress that abounds. I just don't experience it myself. Well, stress when its only me cooking a meal for many. ACK. I try to avoid that.
This year, we are having Christmas at Thanksgiving because we don't know if my mom will still be around at Christmas...if she is, we'll have TWO Christmas celebrations...but in a few weeks we'll be putting up a tree, playing the CD's, lighting up the house, and on Thankmas morning, we'll be opening and exchanging gifts.
O Holy Night Indeed.
 Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
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136 posts 11/4/2009 7:23 pm |
KC - what and where are these multiple Christmas Faires? The food sounds yummy!
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15134 posts 11/4/2009 4:39 pm |
I can hardly wait for the first weekend of December...
the multiple Christmas Faires on one day!
Homemade stuff for sale...7 kinds of homemade soup...
and this year, I have scouted my nutbread soulmate!
I'm buying and freezing every little coconut-enhanced
loaf she bakes!!! 
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